Brooklyn’s bling bishop Lamor Whitehead feuding with financial company over Rolls-Royce payments
Flashy Brooklyn Bishop Lamor Whitehead kicked into legal overdrive after a finance company claimed he was late with a payment for his high-priced Rolls-Royce.
Whitehead, who was robbed at gunpoint while preaching in July, charged in Manhattan court papers that his credit rating plunged by 70 points despite assurances from Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Financial Service that his monthly fees were current.
“Plaintiff was shocked and dismayed to see that his credit score dropped,” his lawyer Brian Ponder charged in the documents filed last month seeking a jury trial on Whitehead’s demand for compensatory and punitive damages.
“Defendant’s reporting caused catastrophic consequences on plaintiff’s financial transactions,” the court filing added.
According to the Oct. 23 four-page filing, the company has refused a request from the “Bling Bishop” to restore his credit rating despite their appeals. New models of Whitehead’s classic 2017 Rolls-Royce Dawn sell for upward of $300,000.
“We don’t have any comment on this issue, and in general we never discuss individual clients’ situations,” said a spokesman for Rolls-Royce, which has until later in the month to answer the legal papers.
Ponder said his client received an alert from the company “in total contradiction” of what Whitehead was told in a Aug. 23 conversation with a service representative.
Court papers said Whitehead was assured his July payment was paid in full, and his August payment was just two days late.
“Therefore Plaintiff was confident that he was not subject to being over 30 days on his loan,” the court filing said. “Plaintiff was later alerted that Defendant reported a 30-day late (notice) on his consumer credit report.”
This past July, the headline-making man of the cloth was delivering his Sunday sermon inside the Leaders of Tomorrow International church in Canarsie, Brooklyn when targeted for an armed robbery by two masked bandits who made off with more than $1 million in jewelry from Whitehead and his wife — who was holding their young daughter on her lap when robbed.
The two 23-year-old suspects, both of Brooklyn, were arrested in late September on federal robbery charges. The high-profile Whitehead, whose hold-up was captured on video, appeared at their federal court arraignments.
Authorities said the bandits fled in a Mercedes-Benz.
The dapper Whitehead was also front and center earlier this year when he tried to orchestrate the surrender of a murder suspect accused of randomly gunning down a Goldman Sachs researcher on the subway. He appeared at a police precinct in Manhattan behind the wheel of his luxury car at the time.
According to the preacher’s lawyer, there was never any indication from the loan company to Whitehead that he was in arrears.
“He was current,” said Ponder. “It’s laid out with them saying nothing was late, with the current payment due.”
